Lee.org

2 weeks ago (jeez the time flies!) I went to see Siobhan in Boston. It was fun! She had to do some work for her Usability class. That entailed us going to iRobot in Burlington and planning out a usability study of their Packbot. How cool is that? I’ve got to make one derogatory comment… usability graduate students are, by and large, pretty dumb. Ok, I’m done being mean.

I got a little tour of the office space. One of the high-points was getting a look at the boss’ office. He’s got -all- the good toys and robots and models and magazines and stuff hanging from the ceiling and everything! Wee! I grinned when I realized that I was familiar with almost every item in the place except for some of the anime characters. There was one character I recognized instantly for a different reason. Koumori rocks.

I just love my VersaCounter. That’s the hit counter I use on my website. I’ve been having a bit of difficulty getting it to work on the new server. Four hours of banging on it last night didn’t convince it to give up it’s secrets.

But there is a good side… I asked the nice people at Spenix (my new ISP) for shell access to my account and it was granted in just a few hours. I SSHed into my account to run the VersaCounter Perl script and I had the problem resolved in 15 minutes. :-)

As I had guessed (this was just one of my many guesses last night) Spenix has the latest versions of all the Perl modules. This means that the latest GD module -doesn’t- support .gif images. Remember how Unisys sat up after 10 years of giving the .gif file format away for free? Now Unisys wants money for their patented property… Jerks…. Indian Givers… whatever… Well, the free-source community responded by cutting .gif out of the loop. The .png file format works just as well as .gif and uses a different code base. So, all I had to do in my situation was to rename all .gif references to .png, convert the images from .gif to .png and I was good to go! Unfortunately, I made a syntax error when converting but I caught that in a second by running it from the shell (fixing that error without a shell would have been nigh impossible).

Hurray! Maybe I don’t hate computers after all.

PS. See my 12-6-03 entry for the sourcecode :-)

I present to you the canonical backup story, in my own words (except for the part about it being canonical.. Those are TJIC’s words).

I’ve always been shy about fully automated backup processes… At my last company, they spent 20 grand on a fancy-ass automated tape backup system. After it had been in operation for 6 months, which required a co-worker to stay late and swap tapes twice a week, I tested the system by asking for a file I had “accidentally” deleted. The response?

“Oop, the backup system doesn’t work after all. Our entire company and code-base is backup-free.”

I wrote this email and sent it to a bunch of friends today:

Subject: From Lee Sonko: a spam stopper that works

If you follow my online journal, you know that I’m nutty for killing spam. Well, over the last couple weeks, I’ve been using a new spam stopping software that I saw mentioned on TechTV and it really gosh-darn works. I’m amazed, astounded… Heck, I’m so happy with it that I’m foisting it on you in this email.

Is a service called SpamNet. If you have Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express and you get more spam than you can bear, you’ll want to try this thing out.

The service costs about $4 per month with a free one-month trial and I am glad to pay it. I receive something like 60 spams/day. My old spam program, McAfee Spamkiller would block 40 of them, leaving me with 20 ways to get the penis patch, see horny asian lovers, and get my degree by mail. Spamnet brings that down to 1-2 per day and I don’t have to continually tweak the program, it’s automatic. It works seemlessly with Outlook. And it has a very low false-positive rate too!

If you use this referral link, it’ll be just $1.99/month for the first year (after the free trial) instead of the retail $4/month :-) http://www.cloudmark.com/?rc=hze4hl
Or use this referral code when you’re paying for it: hze4hl

———————————————-
So, to sum up:
- Cloudmark’s SpamNet really works at stopping spam and it’s very easy to use.
- You must have either Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express to use it.
- It’s $1.99/month (after the free trial) if you use this link http://www.cloudmark.com/?rc=hze4hl.

Have a great day,
Lee

I changed my DNS so that Spenix would be my new web provider. A month ago I switched from Register.com to GoDaddy.com for my DNS b/c GoDaddy is $8/year instead of $35 and GoDaddy’s website has a few more bells and whistles. Now I’m moving from Earthlink to Spenix b/c, although Earthlink has very good LiveChat support, it’s for a product that doesn’t have as many features and easy customizations as Spenix. And Spenix is $8/month instead of $20/month! Of course, it worries me that the main Spenix.com site appears to be down today. But I’m sure that’s just a little glitch… Yipe!

Some site details like the comment engine and hit counter will be broken ’til I fix em. so there.

I just switched my Amex card from a Gold Card to a “Green Card with Rewards”. Switching saves me a few bucks and doesn’t affect me at all since I’ve never used any of the gold card bells and whistles. I went to the E-Z-PASS website to change my account over to the new credit card number but it wouldn’t take my number.. So I called them on the phone. The E-Z-PASS lady changed me over no problem. I asked for help with the website and she asked me what website I was going to. It instantly dawned on me that the stupid money-sucking, corruption ridden, problem laden, pork-barrel politicking system that was “E-Z-Pass” was to blame. You see, Google’s first response for E-Z-Pass is (obviously) http://www.ezpass.com/. But my bill references http://www.e-zpassny.com. E-Z-Pass NY and E-Z-Pass NJ are two completely different, non-overlapping entities. “But…” I say. And I stop, remembering all the hoopla over the system over the past 3 years. The shady dealings, money laundering, intentional cost overruns, and scandal. And then I wish that I had been an inside-investor in E-Z-P-ASS.

I’ve had Cloudmark for a day and I’ve got to say that It’s really weird not getting spam anymore. I almost miss it. Almost.

I want to advertise by email.

I want Ativan without a prescription.

I want to boost my penis size by 3 to 5 inches.

I want bulk email services.

I want to chill out in cool new gear!

I want to develop a larger penis in weeks.

I want to develop a larger bust in weeks.

I want diazepam without a prescription.

I want FREE smiley faces for my email.

I want the last call for popcorn.

I want to get a cell phone at no cost to myself!

I want a Quick Cash Loan up to $500.

I want the world’s hottest RC toys of the year!

I want a penis patch

I want to lose fat while sleeping as seen on on ABC, CBS, CNN.

I want to be careful of downloading music files.

I want to make my child a star student.

I want to order my prescription medication today.

I want to look better and feel better, guaranteed!

I want to regain my A+ rating, quickly and legally.

I want new crafts projects AND a free tote.

I want lower blood sugar Naturally.

I want coupon-ink for my printer with free US shipping.

I want my fifty dollars.

I want email advertisements.

I want the fountain of youth_money back guarantee.

I want VIAG RA..VIAGRA.. 1/2 PRICEhahalf off on GVIAGRA.

I want Norton 2003 for under $30.

I want Vicodin without a Prescription.

I want Xanax - no_prescription_needed.

I want to Grow my Penis Size to My Full Potential.

I want a low cost extended warranty for my old/new car.

I want to increase my penis size in 1 hour.

I don’t want a diet, I want a patch.

I want to lose weight with a patch.

I want to lose weight without a patch.

I want to make life easy and Get Prescriptions Online.

I want MedDietPatch monitor.

I want No Doctor Visit Medications!

I want Long term cheap mortgages! I want to “SAVE BIG” 3.55%

I want Prescriptions written and filled online.

I want to satisfy my lover with an increased penis size.

I want Turbo Twister Mini RC Stunt Cars.

I want Vicodins with No Prescription Needed.

I want Vicodins-_with_No_Prescription_Needed.

I want Vicodin_-_with_no_prescription_needed.

I want Vicodin, Turbo Twister, prescriptions, my A+ rating, MedDietPatch, the easy life, a child star, a cell phone, to look better, a doctor, a diet, a patch, Panama, a warrantee, Xanax, Norton, Viagra, and most especially, I want to increase my penis size by 2 to 5 inches.

I caught the trailer for MR today. I am sad to realize that the Wachowski Brothers only had one Matrix movie in them.

Cyberpunk Highlander. Ugh.

Ok, I saw a 45 meg Quicktime of the Matrix trailer. I’ll give it that it’s a pretty movie… “sumptuous visuals”. But if you threw 25 million dollars at A Nightmare on Elm Street, they could make it “sumptuous”… Oh wait, they did. (Freddy Vs. Jason)

It’s the plot, man! It’s the plot!